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Thursday, April 7th, 2011Dismissing Vince Siemer’s appeal against NZ’s highest ever defamation damages award, the Court of Appeal said: We have not had our attention drawn to any worse case of defamation in the British Commonwealth, and our own researches have not disclosed one. Really? It’s hard to imagine they looked very hard. What about the famous case […]
Justice: A book so good that Garth McVicar plans to read it
Monday, March 28th, 2011A new book on the justice system has hit the bookshop shelves. It’s called “Justice: Speaking Up For Crime’s Silent Victims”. The cover features a staunch-looking Garth McVicar, whose name also appears in large letters at the bottom. Guess who wrote this book. Hint: not Garth McVicar. I presume when you open it up you are […]
Er
Friday, March 18th, 2011Shouldn’t some journalists be asking the government, and Rodney Hide in particular, whether the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act follows the principles in the Regulatory Standards Bill…?
The Wikileaks Papers
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011Who said this, and when? It’s time to quit making national heroes of those who steal public secrets and publish them in the newspaper? When whole filing cabinets can be stolen there can’t be orderly government any more. He’s offering aid and comfort to the enemy, putting himself above the President, Congress and the whole […]
Book your copies now
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011I’m working my way through the newly released 6th edition of Media Law in New Zealand by John Burrows and Ursula Cheer. (Actually, this updated version was mostly done by Ursula). It is as comprehensive as ever. If you’re wondering how much media law there has been in the last five years, we now have […]
Sad news
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011I’m sorry to have to note the passing of Sandra Moran, a doyenne of New Zealand media law. She was a principal at Oakley Moran and a former president of the Film and Literature Board of Review. I worked with her a little over the past couple of the years and she was generous with […]
No ordinary Joe
Monday, January 24th, 2011I interviewed Justice Joe Williams for The Court Report, about being a judge, his time as Chair of the Waitangi Tribunal, and about being the only judge on the bench with a top-20 hit. His responses are thoughtful and moving, I think.
Primer on the New Zealand Constitution
Monday, December 13th, 2010Here’s a “Simpleton’s guide to the Constitution” that I wrote for the The Press a few years ago. It seems timely to stick it up again given the government’s new Constitutional review (aka the “Consideration of Constitutional Issues”). At the law school where I work, you’ll sometimes find foreign students wandering around the law library looking baffled. “Where is your […]
Wikileaks: the big question
Sunday, December 12th, 2010In all of the controversy about Wikileaks, one central question seems to remain unresolved: how should we pronounce “Assange”? Is it “an” as in “dance” or “blancmange” or “flange”? [Update: these sites suggest that the first is correct]. The main lesson of the Wikileaks saga for me is that we should be skeptical of government assertions that the […]
Pike River privacy breach
Friday, November 26th, 2010My colleague, privacy expert Dr Nicole Moreham, reckons the media are guilty of breach of privacy with their splashy coverage of the victims’ grief-stricken families emerging from the briefing where they were informed of their loved ones’ fate. She has kindly allowed me to cross-post (original source here): There would be few New Zealanders who […]
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